Russia's Interior Ministry says that a senior Russian executive from the private TNK-BP oil producer was arrested on attempted fraud charges linked to his work at a previous government post.

According to the officials, Igor Korneyev, the head of department for cooperation with state agencies at Russia's third-largest crude producer, allegedly offered two high federal posts to two businessmen for $3 million each last month, when he served as the deputy head of the government of the Siberian region of Irkutsk.

The announcement of Korneyev's arrest came as TNK-BP negotiates an acquisition bid by the government-controlled Rosneft company and follows board tension between the Anglo-Russian group's Russian tycoon co-owners and BP.